Author: Rachel Louise Driscoll

A young Victorian Egyptologist traverses the Nile River on a mission to undo a curse that may have befallen her family in this spellbinding novel.

"An intoxicating tale of adventure and obsession, told in prose that shimmers like the Nile . . . I loved it."--Emilia Hart, author of Weyward

Essex, 1887. Clementine's ability to read hieroglyphs makes her invaluable at her father's Egyptian relic parties, which have become the talk of the town. But at one such party, the words she interprets from an unusual amulet strike fear into her heart. As her childhood games about Isis and Nephthys--sister goddesses who protect the dead--take on a devastating resonance in her life, and tragedy slowly consumes her loved ones, she wonders what she and her father may have unleashed.

Five years later, Clemmie arrives in Cairo desperate to save what remains of her family back home. There, she meets a motley crew of unwitting English travelers about to set sail down the Nile--including an adventurer with secrets of his own--and joins them on a mission to reach Denderah, a revered religious site, where she hopes to return the amulet and atone for her sins.

With each passing day, she is further engulfed in a life she's yearned for all along. But as long-buried secrets and betrayals rise to the surface, Clemmie must reconcile the impossibility of living in the light while her past keeps her anchored to the darkness.

Publisher: Penguin Random House
Published: 06/10/2025
Pages: 352
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.08oz
Size: 9.25h x 6.13w x 0.84d
ISBN: 9780593982884

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 04/14/2025

About the Author
Rachel Louise Driscoll is a former librarian and winner of the Curtis Brown Creative scholarship. She lives in the northeast of England with her husband and her cat, Cleopatra. The House of Two Sisters is her debut novel.